McLoughlins Beach

[Lightningx]

Some nice flatties mate
Cheers

[Pirkz]

Having sold my old Tinny and not wishing to play Billy No Mates on the Paynesville jetties catching Bream that I could actually see, I persuaded my Offsider that a last hurrah re the MCL Flatties was required before the water cooled and it was back to winter SP Salmon fishing - which invariably resulted in chicken for T, as neither of us eat salmon and most caught are returned. Breakfast focaccia despatched at our usual viewing point table, we left Lake Guthridge to the Errr...ducks, coots, walkers, pram pushers and runners, and headed off to MCL. Arrived to a be greeted by a rising tide, a rain shower or three and an empty ramp. Flathead, using bait (me) and SP (him) (well he did have 6 outfits rigged set up ready to try) and bait once I started catching.... ha ha, were the quarry. Lines in around 10 am and we were soon into a fish or two mainly on bait; pilly, bluebait, squid fished on the bottom, it didn't matter. Plenty of bites & action. And even a few on Sp. An hour and about 10 flatty later a fellow fisher approached in his rather tired looking collectors item of a boat (reckon his rods should also have been in a museum) But shouldnt have judged this book by its cover as he asked if we wanted any fish as he'd caught 'A few' (10 snapper anybody ?) and didn't eat fish! Being local he said that he could (and very often did) go out anytime and his 50 years of local MCL experience meant that he invariably caught a feed - albeit for someone else. He had already given 6 away en route to us from his 'Spot' . His retired neighbours often suffered from a similar problem apparently -i.e too many fishing days resulting in too many fish in the fridge at times! After checking the Esky for a Vacancy sign (Yep plenty of room in there) we agreed to help him out. 4 snapper ( 40-45 ) and a flatty later he departed - after giving us the 'Good Oil' including the 'Spot' for our hastily arranged snapper trip- next week. Anywaaay,.... after that rather unusual event ,we decided to move to chase some bigger flatties known to inhabit the areas we were fishing as we now had plenty of fish - albeit caught and adopted! Two moves and a couple of hours later we decided to call it quits. 18 flatties kept - including 1 @ 50 with the rest around the 40-42 mark. About a dozen smaller fish 30-40 and 1 @ 60 returned to fight another day. So far so good - a great day out afloat. But ... and there often is a But... Turned the key on the 2016 100 hr well serviced Merc 4 stroke and ... nada! ...and again ...and again. ... Nada .Not even a squeak from the motor. Dead as a Dodo except for a 3 or 4 beep sound from the system each time the key was turned - So obviously a problem somewhere. But the battery was showing green, lanyard was connected and all visible wires looked OK? Go figure. It was about to become quite an adventure (note to self...one widely accepted definition of Adventure by true Adventurers is - Adversity in Retrospect). Would I look back on this 'Adventure' one day and laugh? Err... knowing the challenge laying ahead of getting back to the ramp I doubted it at the time! But hey the two paddles would give us a fighting chance - as one each, much better than trying to use both on your own.. ha ha. And if we were lucky/skillful/adept enough (we d need to be all three.... and more), we could possibly catch the rather slow incoming tide/current and make it back to the ramp by about... Saturday - as no shortcut across the shallows was available due to the motor being fully trimmed down. And, to add insult to potential injury, the wind had freshened and was now blowing across the tide. The mangroves 800 m away looked like being our most likely destination for the night. But after 15 mins of prodding, poking and jiggling, various wires, along with a bit (read a lot) of FFS' ing we /he finally (luckily) got the trim to work and the engine to fire - Power restored (must have been a bit of damp in the dilithium crystals Captain)!! Good job too as when there's no one else about, MCL can be a lonely place for the stranded. And that was that. All fun n games. Advised offsider to refit his Watersnake and charge the second battery for our next outing ... just in case! And, .....to sort his bloody boat out.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[Paulanderson]

A great and adventurous day out!

[Pirkz]

So towed the latest family member (Stessco Angler 395) down to MCL yesterday and met up with my trusty Offsider (though he is UK pension age on Sat so maybe that should read 'Rusty' Offsider) for a fish at Mann's Entrance channel. Arrived at pretty much low tide - so low that even trimmed up at 10kph we grounded several times in the sand/mud/weed on the way out ( by that big green marker past the jetty). Ramp was also very, very weedy. A couple of other trailers were parked up (& weeded up), but otherwise all was quiet as midweek and someone's got to work to keep the economy going - or so they say! The outgoing tide in the ramp channel was weedy and coloured, and looked quite uninviting, so we gave our usual flatty spot a miss and motored straight across to the Mann's Beach channel stopping on the way to question a couple of other boats. All quiet and nothing biting - was the general consensus. Consequently, our moderate expectations were lowered a bit further, though to be fair it was between our seasons at MCL, (summer = flathead and winter = salmon ). Nevertheless we were hoping for some mixed sport - including a few salmon on Sps. The new 'old' (2011) boat went well, and the 40 hp Yam 2 stroke pushed us along expeditiously at 40kph + no problem, with throttle to spare. Being a tiller model, the layout gave us plenty of room - for the 10 rods on board (7 of Rusties and 3 of mine) along with our associated fishing 'luggage '. Movable seats proved handy as well at times - as we could reconfigure for transit ;1 up front & 1 down the back , to side by side for fishing down tide over the back. Anyway we anchored up near an 8 m hole in the main Mann's channel, with the tide still running out quite strongly and straight away were into bits n pieces on bait on the bottom , including plenty of undersize (25cm ish) Pinkies and a few of the other usual suspects - though surprisingly no Salmon . . Nothing big though, and we only kept a 38cm KGW, a tailor about the same size, and a 42cm Trevally. The water was a lot clearer here away from the creeks. An hour in and the tide stopped, then turned, and the regular bites ceased. So lines up and so we moved a few times to various random spots en route back to the ramp. No flatties , in fact bugger all, as too late & cold I reckon. Last stop in 4-5m by the big red & green buoys on a corner half way back to the ramp resulted in the highlight of the day catching a bunch of 30 cm Yakka's on small Sp's - good sport on light tackle (his rod No 6 I think) and by now we were in the mood to be 'easily pleased'! So the result - Lines In at 1030 and Lines Up and 2.30pm for 3 fish in the bin. But another good MCL day out with fine weather, mateship, good banter, a few tight lines at times, and a free trailer load of weed (when dragging the boat out). 40l of gas burnt towing (excluding the boat), and only 1 rod broken on return (shut the bloody garage roller door on the tip). That'll be it for the MCL road trips till the middle of winter now, but with he KGW still about in the lakes that wont be too much of a hardship. Shall launch again for Wollaston Bay tomorrow - if only to get all the weed off of the trailer!
Tight Lines
Pirkz
Library pic of the boat at Paynesville town jetty in case you were wondering

[Chilli]

Nice report Pirkz
And good size trevally. It would have put up a decent fight.

[Pirkz]

Fished MCL yesterday 1000-1430 on an incoming tide with my offsider. Target was salmon - which had been reported earlier in the week. Stayed around the MCL entrance area using Sps and bait but All quiet. Nowt. Eventually anchored up in a side channel and caught 8oz salmon after 8oz salmon on anything thrown at em. Coupla just size tailor put in an appearance but overall a disappointing day. Saw a few dolphins heading up towards the jetty mid arvo - probably why the bigger sambos were scarce. Shall leave MCL alone now until summer .
Tight Lines
Pirkz.

[Pirkz]

Fshed MCL today and the title tells the story as the days ( other than the date) were pretty much identical Only one other boat out. Went as far as Manns entrance but all for nowt other than one 30 cm pinky returned. Thats it down there till summer - honest! Bring on Sept and the lakes KGW season, although with the water so clear and with no real heavy rain forcast Im not sure how this years season will go . I do know that I shall be buying a cryovac machine and consequently most neighbours will be getting bugger all this year.
Tight Lines
Pirkz

[Pirkz]

Drove down the South Gippy highway yesterday en route Kilkunder and noticed that the servo forecourt is dug up at Woodside so no fuel tfn.
Regards Pirkz

[Pirkz]

Even though we are half way through Autumn I thought that Id have one last throw of the summer dice and ever the optimist, give the flatties a chance to visit my fridge before heading off overseas yet again. Well that and the fact that I reckon the Lakes KGW season is officially over (for me at least) on account of catching bugger all last time out. So I met up with my trusty offsider and his Bluefin in Sale and following our usual routine of pie (well breakfast focacia actually - a sign of the changing times) T and banter, we headed off to MCL. Gave Woodside garage a glancing blow en route for some bait (price tags ? What price tags?) and arrived to face the incoming tide - which in fact was late - as it was still running out. Oohhh it looks a bit shallow was the first, second and last impression (s) - being as it was only knee deep in parts looking at the large expanse of sand and flats. But keen to crack on and being an impatient pair ,we launched and maintained a steady 3kph across the very shallow shallow bits with only the odd grounding / moan from the skeg .About 20 mins later we crossed the green bouy marking he end of the shallows and it was game on... Errrr rather it wasnt. Despite various moves here, there, and back to here, or was it there? I cant remember - our expectations, already lower than the tide, were met and then some. After 3 hrs we had only managed to boat a mixed bag of the usual suspects - Salmon, Blowies, Trevally, Flathead, and a Snook on Sp (returned) mostly on bait and mostly undersize. So although it was a nice sunny / breezy day afloat mid arvo saw us heading home. Disappointed ? Well not really, as any visit to MCL is always worth more than the sum of its fishing parts, i.e focacia, scenery, mateship, fresh air and some adventure along with, potentially at least, a fish or two (or one as in todays case).That'll be it for MCL till a salmon run about mid July I reckon!"
Tight Lines
Pirkz